Snowed In
by NonsensicalCheshire
Summary: Nope, this was not what they had really wanted after a stressful day of work. Not. At. All. / Oneshot, credit for cover goes to ぐう on Pixiv


Mashiro had thought it was snowing hard in the morning. The wind had whipped her face, stung her eyes, piled up in her hair. The cold made her teeth chatter. The wind had almost blown the light-weight woman over once, sent her scarf flying twice, and snow fell out of trees on her five times. This all happened in a five minute walk. It was pretty understandable as to why the normally cheerful woman was not happy.

She'd walked into the office a mess, storming into Kensei and Shuuhei's office in a complete, silent rage. The two looked at her like they'd never seen a snowstorm ravaged woman before. After taking her paperwork from her frozen fingers, even though they were gloved, her successor had been kind enough to brush a pile of snow off her shoulder.

The entire day was spent grumbling and tired and resulted with a broken keyboard that Mashiro swiftly swapped with some random guys while he was at lunch. Writing her articles, which she normally found so much fun, was a tedious task today. Shuuhei probably felt bad for her and/or sensed her irritated aura, because he slid a piece of cake into her office, unwilling to hand it to her, fearing her wrath.

The slice of cake seemed to make her feel better (sweets always did), as she was able to write without feeling murderous from that point on. And before the small Soul Reaper knew it, she was the last one in the workplace. It was only seven in the evening- People must've left early. Shutting down the computer, she grabs her cloak and bag, and locks the door behind her.

And all of the sudden, a person walks into her. She shrieks in surprise. "What the- who? What?"

"Mashiro?" It's Kensei. "You're still here?"

She puts a hand over her heart and takes a couple of deep breaths. "I didn't know it was 'Leave-Work-Early-Day.' We're the only two left, I suppose."

Kensei feels himself heat up a little at "only two left." But she stares up at him innocently, unaware that he is flustered by this. She's been unaware that he's been acting a little different towards her since the whole Aizen-Winter-War thing. Because, suddenly, after seeing her hurt and broken like she'd been, and her showing off a slightly more mature side since then, he didn't look at her quite the same way.

"Uh, yeah. I'm just putting some papers in the files and then heading home."

"Oh. Okay, then." Mashiro pulls the hood of her cloak over her head. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

The two part ways. She's opening the door when suddenly, she gets a faceful of frigid snow and blast of heavy winter wind. Mashiro can't believe it. It's a blizzard out there. What, had someone called Captain Hitsugaya short again?"

She gives a small squeak when the door won't shut from the wind. She's pushing and pushing, but even with her strength it won't shut, but then there are footsteps behind her and a gloved hand also grabs the door. Together, the two manage to shut it.

Kensei rubs his hands together, warming them from the brief cold they were exposed to. "Great. With that out there, we're not headed home anytime soon."

"Well, that's great, isn't it? What are we supposed to do?" Mashiro sighs. Then her stomach growls. She blushes. "Oh. Uh, sorry."

Kensei lifts an eyebrow. "Are you always hungry?"

"I can't help it! My stomach likes food. Food is good."

"So I've heard. Well, let me go see if there's anything to eat. Can you go see if you can go find some blankets?" he asks.

"Sure thing. You better find something good to eat!" she calls after him. He simply waves a hand. "Because you know hell hath no fury like me when I need food!"

He's already gone though, so she heads to the supply closet and pulls out five heavy ones, then heads to his office, since it has the best furniture to nap on. (She's learned this from sneaking off to sleep, but hiding in the Captain's office is not the best place to, well, hide.) She sits on the couch and wraps two around herself and starts to doze off.

Ten minutes later there's a tap on her shoulder and she's waking up, and Kensei is sitting down next to her and offering her a mug with one hand, the other placing a package of rice crackers on the table in front of them. Mashiro accepts it gratefully and eyes the crackers.

"Hot chocolate and crackers! You are a saint, my captain." She downs the whole thing of hot chocolate in three minutes, scalding her tongue in the process, but who cares? Chocolate!

Done with their drinks, the two sit in silence for a moment. Mashiro fidgets. She hates it when there's silence and she's with people. It doesn't feel natural to her. So, she tries to strike up a conversation. "So… How's work in your office going?"

He opens an eye and regards her before shutting it again. She thinks he's going to ignore her in his typical Stupid-Kensei manner, but he responds after a moment. "It's fine. I've got twice the work, though, since I'm doing Shuuhei's while he gets the Bulletin together. Why did our squad have to get the stupid job?"

"It's not stupid, Kensei. A lot of people like the magazine, and it's fun to do."

"You say that because you actually like writing and have a fun job on the staff."

"And Shuuhei gave my job a cool title. That just made it better."

"Oh yes, that makes everything so much better." He turns his head from its position on the back of the couch to look at her. She looks peaceful and comfortable, her eyes closed and breathing even. He'd think she's asleep if she didn't do this a lot. Over time he'd learned it was her way of soaking in the serenity around her. "So, do you like the kid?"

Her eyes open a little. "Do I like Shuu-kun? Well, I certainly had mixed feelings about him when we first came back, but now he's… He's a sweetheart. And I like any guy who brushes snow off my shoulder and slides a piece of cake into my office. It means he's cool."

"Be glad your getting that treatment from him, because it certainly won't be coming from me anytime soon."

"Stupid Kensei! It's important to be nice to your subordinates." She swats his shoulder. He nudges her away.

The two manage to carry on their conversations for hours. Kensei is still talking when he feels something fall on his shoulder. Mashiro has fallen asleep and decided to rest her head on him. He sighs. Is he that boring that she's gone to sleep in the middle of their conversation? But he takes a stray blanket and drapes it over her, looking at the clock. 2 AM. Maybe he should sleep too…

. . . . . . . .

**8 AM**

"Captain, I'm here early- OH MY GOSH! S-So sorry for interrupting!"

"W-what time is it? Huh? Wait, kid, it's not like that! Oh, Mashiro, you're up."

"Hn? Shuu-kun thinks we were… Oh hell no. C'mere, Shuu-kun. I'll bash your head in."

"W-wait, you weren't, um, doing something under those blankets? Why're you even here- Hey, hey, Kuna, wait… wait, spare me!"


End file.
